The Obama administration has a clear choice, according to Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. It can either stand with the victims of oppression in Castro’s Cuba or stand with the man who jailed and murdered thousands of innocent Cubans.

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“It is a real opportunity for U.S. officials to show where they stand. Let’s stand with human rights and let’s not celebrate someone who has 60 years of blood on his hands,” Cruz said on ABC News’ This Week.

“I hope we don’t see Barack Obama and Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton and the Democrats lining up to lionize a murderous tyrant and thug,” Cruz said.

Cruz gave American leaders a standard by which to measure Castro’s impact and whether they wish to associate themselves with his legacy.

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“If you wouldn’t go to Pol Pot’s funeral or Stalin’s funeral or Mao’s funeral because they were murderous communist dictators then you shouldn’t be doing what Barack Obama and Justin Trudeau are doing, which is celebrating Fidel Castro, a murderous communist dictator,” Cruz said.

Trudeau praised Castro as a “legendary revolutionary and orator” who “made significant improvements to the education and health care of his island nation.” Obama offered “condolences” to the Cuban people and noted how his administration sought to restore relations with Cuba.

Cruz noted that Castro’s death does not end Cuba’s nightmare.

Change can come to Cuba, but only if America learns from history and prevents Fidel’s successor from playing the same old tricks. https://t.co/CISllrT7uW

“A dictator is dead. But his dark, repressive legacy will not automatically follow him to the grave,” Cruz wrote in the National Review. “Change can come to Cuba, but only if America learns from history and prevents Fidel’s successor from playing the same old tricks.”

“He is his brother’s chosen successor who has spent the last eight years implementing his dynastic plan,” Cruz said, saying that it is time for a new American policy towards Cuba.

“Unlike Cuba, however, the United States has an actual democracy, and our recent elections suggest there is significant resistance among the American people to the Obama administration’s policy of appeasement towards hostile dictators. We can — and should — send clear signals that that policy is at an end,” he wrote.

“And we should insist that no United States government official attend Castro’s funeral unless and until Raul releases his political prisoners, first and foremost those who have been detained since Fidel’s death,” Cruz added.

Cruz’s father, Rafael Cruz, fled Cuba to live in the United States.

“I was with my dad when he found out the news that Fidel Castro was dead, and he simply said, ‘Praise God,'” Cruz said.

“For a man who has tortured and murdered and oppressed, for so many, it is thankful that he is no longer with us,” Cruz said.